With parliamentary elections due in Italy in less than two months the Prime Minister has announced a controversial new political alliance.

Silvio Berlusconi has joined forces with the right wing populist Social Alternative party - led by Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the facist dictator.

Though welcoming Mussolini to his centre right House of Liberties coalition, Berlusconi opposed the inclusion of fringe extreme right wingers on the Social Alternative party list.

Apparently alluding to the legalisation of gay marriage in neighbouring Spain,which is led by socialist Jose Luis Rodgriguez Zapatero,

Mussolini explained why she opted for the alliance.

"It was important to make a choice in favour of the House of Liberties against a communist Zapaterian drift that undermines society's basic institution, which is the family," she said, apparently alluding to the legalisation of gay marriage in neighbouring Spain, which is led by socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodgriguez Zapatero.

It is not only Berlusconi's new choice of partners which is causing a stir among the left in Italy. An opinion poll commissioned by the Prime Minister has also scandalised some in the opposition headed by Romano Prodi. Instead of calling on Italian firms to do the job, Berlusconi chose an American company and unlike domestic surveys it showed him slightly in the lead.

It predicted Berlusconi was two points ahead of his rival Prodi. For weeks polls taken by Italian researchers have put him some four percentage points behind.

We must built ships that will not traverse the Seven Seas but the Milky Way and the stars beyond, ships with no sails but engines powered by fuel, sweat and the creative cunning of the race that gave the world everything and will give the universe more than even God ever dreamt of. - Ogeno

We must built ships that will not traverse the Seven Seas but the Milky Way and the stars beyond, ships with no sails but engines powered by fuel, sweat and the creative cunning of the race that gave the world everything and will give the universe more than even God ever dreamt of. - Ogeno

Italian prime minister also owns Fininvest investment company, which has interests in television, life insurance, movie production, magazines, newspapers and even the AC Milan soccer team. No stranger to scandal, Berlusconi was acquitted of charges that he bribed a judge in 1985; now encountering new legal problems, this time a tax fraud charge in association with the 2005 sale of stock in Mediaset, an Italian television network. Case is still in early stages and could play factor in April elections when Berlusconi attempts to get reelected.